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Canned Crushed Tomatoes Recipe
August 30, 2004 | by Heidi | Filed under
Saveur Magazine Issue Number: 61, Page 33
There was a 15-pound flat of San Marzano tomatoes with my name on it at the Farmer's market Saturday morning. With tomato season in full tilt, I was determined not to let it pass me by again without trying my hand at canning (which in this case actually means jarring) some crushed tomatoes. I go through A LOT of store-bought, canned, crushed tomatoes during the year -- using them for just about everything -- pizza, casseroles, soups, sauces, etc. I made it to the wonderful Mariquita Farm stand just before 9 o'clock, hoping they would still have a flat of the tomatoes that made the Neapolitan pizza famous.
I decided it would be more fun if I had a partner in crime, so I called my dad (who lives about an hour south of me) and warned him that I would be decending on his kitchen Sunday afternoon armed with a giant pot, a strainer, a 12-pack of pint-sized mason jars, and a flat of tomatoes. He supplied another commercial size pot, an immersion blender, and about 80-pages of information about the rules of canning that he dug up from various places online, including the USDA. The plan was to loosely follow the method outlined in the Saveur canning article in regards to how to cook down the tomatoes, sterilize the jars, fill them, etc. It seemed pretty straight forward, and we made our way through the steps which involved:
-washing the tomatoes, cutting them in half, and throwing them in one of the giant pots over low heat.
-cooking the tomatoes down until they got mushy and the skins fell off.
-blending with the immersion blender (my first time using one, it was GREAT! my dad has the Cuisinart brand).-pushing the tomatoes through a strainer to remove most of the seeds and skins.
-cooking the tomatoes down a bit more ( I could tell my dad was getting a bit impatient, and wanted to get to the actual canning, so our sauce is a little on the thin side ;)
-boiling the jars and lids, filling and sealing the jars, and then boiling again (as the jars cool, you hear the pop of the lids as the vacuum is being created - neat).
I wanted to season and flavor the tomatoes a bit, so as the tomatoes were cooking down, over low-heat we infused about 3/4 cup of extra-virgin olive oil with about nine cloves of well chopped garlic, a couple T. of crushed red pepper, and a T or so of salt. I stirred this into the tomatoes, and salted to taste just before canning. We also didn't add lemon juice, the Saveur recipe doesn't call for it, but many other recipes for canned tomato sauce recommend it to cut back on the potential for bacteria growth in your jars.
To err on the safe side, I really should have listened to my dad, and followed the USDA recommendations he printed out verbatim. They have a great resource online that tells you the proper way to go about canning a whole host of different foods. Keeping your acidity in check (and not winging it like I did) is an important way to reduce the risk of bacteria blossoming in your jars.
Click here to go the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning.
We ended up with 10 pints of sauce, with a bit left over, because we didn't add any extra acidity, and we added the olive oil, I am going to play it safe and refrigerate this batch. It really is a bit of summertime in a jar and makes a perfect sauce for simple pasta dishes like cappellini with a bit of parmesan and fresh basil or on a homemade pizza. The key with this sauce is to not bog it down with a bunch of unneeded chunks or seasonings, let the tomatoes really shine through and you have the perfect red sauce on hand and ready throughout the year.
From: Saveur Magazine Issue Number: 61, Page: 33
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Your Comments
Margery Hill said:This sounds delicious and easy too. Like you, I use many, many cans of purchased tomatoes: whole, diced, crushed, seasoned; all sorts. Do you think you saved any money doing it yourself?
I paid $17 for the 15-pound flat. So I averaged about $1.50 per jar + about 3 hours in the kitchen. The real bonus is that I know I have great tomatoes going into the sauce and no industrial processing, preservatives, unneccesary ingredients, etc.
it could be the hormones caused by mostly baked bun in my oven, but any story about a dad and daughter doing something together makes me feel warm and fuzzy.
It sounds like you had a nice day. I hope those tomatoes work out for you but I'm concerned about how you did this!
I took a canning class and the instructor (who had lots of credentials) stressed that the acidity level is critical in not having bacteria grow in canned goods. Canning is not an area in which to be creative or loosely follow directions. You can make yourself (and others) very very sick (or worse). I especially worry that throwing in that olive oil may have changed the acid content of the tomatoes significantly. Doing the boiling step isn't enough to keep things safe.
May I convince you to at least refrigerate those cans, and next time follow (very closely) those USDA guidelines? Here's a link to USDA's info about canning tomatoes:
http://foodsafety.cas.psu.edu/usda
1PrinciplesHomeCanning/EnsuringSafeCannedFoods.pdf
Ok, I'll put those in the refrigerator, and try it with the lemon juice or asorbic acid next time just in case the olive oil threw stuff out of balance. I know the San Marzano are lower in PH than other kinds of tomatoes which could compound the problem (?)...can you smell it if it goes bad? I was always taught to sniff cans after you open them to check for botulism.
The Saveur recipe suggested just using the tomatoes, then throwing basil leaves into the jar as well. I've read other recipes using olive oil with apparently no problems, but I would rather err on the safe side and add the extra ingredients afterwards if I need to.
Thanks for the info, I'll add it to my post. -h
Query: Why strain to get the seeds out? I've made similar sauce in the (distant) past and I've discovered that the non-removal of the seeds does not greatly diminish the result.
BTW, a great weblog.
I think it is just personal preference. The seeds don't actually bother me, but I do like to get rid of the skins. For this batch I strained out about 90% of skins + seeds and left the rest in for a bit of texture. -h
Glad you're still ok! :)
I think I'm freaky about botulism because a woman in this area contracted it (I believe from fish, not canned goods). She was basically a prisoner in her own body. They thought she had a coma but when they did some tests they realized her brain waves were normal. It took them awhile to diagnose botulism.
The nurses wanted to give her some stimulation and somehow thought she liked country music, so they played it and played it in her room. Imagine her horror -- she did NOT like country music and couldn't communicate to turn it off! It took her over a year to recover.
As a result, I'd stick with the USDA recipes for the canned goods, then use your wonderful creativity when you use them in recipes! Good luck!
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